They Tore Out My Heart and Stomped That Sucker Flat by Lewis Grizzard

They Tore Out My Heart and Stomped That Sucker Flat Reviews

• 
  Deborah

  You Just Might Smile
  
  I don’t think you have to be from the South to find this funny but you DO have to possess a sense of humor. I have always been a fan of Lewis Grizzard’s books. Don’t get me wrong, there are some sad bits too but you just might love the funny bits a whole lot more! I am rereading a few now.
• 
  Kitty

  The late Lewis Grizzard was one of my favorite Southern humorists. I feel like I coud have been along on his exploits. Always the master of understatement, he makes me chuckle rather than giggle uproariously. Fun to read and reminisce.
• 
  TC

  Read this when I was a kid. Very funny. He was a funny Southern writer. I remember reading this in the library and trying not to laugh out loud.
• 
  fleegan

  This is a very old Lewis Grizzard book (I think it's from '82 or '84) and I didn't really enjoy it. It was laying on a table at work and between deposits I would read it and wonder how on earth he was such a famous writer. Famous might be an exaggeration, but everyone I know has heard of him so, there you go. I don't remember reading any of his newspaper columns so maybe those were better, but this book sucked like a bucket of ticks. He's not very likable, I think that's why I didn't enjoy it. The book itself is about him having to have heart surgery and him being a pain in the ass about having to have heart surgery. The only good thing about this book is that it's short.
  
  Perhaps his other books are good? Maybe I'll give another one a shot.
  
  
• 
  Danielle

  I probably would have thought this book was funny even if I hadn't just had heart surgery. But since I had a pulmonary valve replacement almost four months ago, I found it hysterical and VERY true.
• 
  RAD

  
  The Tell-Tale Heart
  
  
  Lewis Grizzard occupies a place in long line of southern and regional humorists, from
  Augustus Baldwin Longstreet and
  George Washington Harris in the mid-nineteenth century, to
  Mark Twain (and his lesser-known contemporary
  Bill Arp), to
  Joel Chandler Harris and
  Flannery O’Connor. While Grizzard’s writing is not yet recognized as being as literary or unique as some of these authors, his style is uniquely southern, and the passing of time may elevate his common-folk vernacular to wider appreciation.
  
  Non-southern readers may not appreciate the nuances of Grizzard’s writing and the spirit captured by his local patois. Yet even Twain was dismissed (even excoriated) early in his career. Grizzard’s They Tore Out My Heart appears casual, at times low-brow, and even pedestrian on its surface, but aside from its humor, the book contains deeper, poignant insight into the human condition.
  
  Heart is written about two hearts: the actual physical heart, and the heart that deals with love and loss, with its own, separate difficulties. The two are even intertwined, as Grizzard’s second divorce occurred just months after his first heart surgery (he ultimately had four, the last one leading to his death before the age of 50).
  
  Grizzard masks the seriousness of the physical heart in a constant stream of jokes. His thoughts about the second heart explore several aspects of love, from marriage, to the familial (his mother, father, and stepfather), to the nostalgic (dogs, baseball, beer), to the charitable (balloons to a young girl in the hospital), to the base (chasing after much younger girls while he was a teenager, which, while funny, would likely received editorial censorship in today’s environment).
  
  The book ends in characteristic Grizzard style: sentimental truths cloaked in humor.
  
  

  There is just this one other thing. There is the matter of what to do about the current condition of my second heart. We all have two. One to lub-dub and carry on the actual function of life. Another, to skip and flutter and occasionally break with the bitter and sweet that living life inevitably brings.

  
  

  They don’t write songs about the first heart, the one that can be repaired by surgical brilliance. “I Love You Sorta, Way Down in My Aorta.” That would never fly. They write songs about the second heart, the one that fills up and runs over when you hug her close and kiss her and she hugs you and kisses you back and the seat covers nearly catch on fire. The one she stomps flat and empty when she runs off six months later with somebody named Junior Ledbetter.

  
  

  There are a lot of songs that have been written about situations like that. If somebody hasn’t written one called, “If My Heart Was a Pick-Up Truck, It Would Be a Quart Low,” then they should.

  
  

  I lost my first love. I lost my second. I’ve hurt for my mama. I’ve missed my daddy, and I’ll even admit to crying over a good dog long gone to dog heaven where they never run out of raw wienies and the creeks are always cool.

  
  

  And a couple of months after my surgery, my third attempt at being married fell hard and quick, for reasons I’ll probably be years trying to figure out. The only thing I’m absolutely certain about is nobody named Junior Ledbetter was involved.

  
  

  “How’s your heart?” they ask me now.

  
  

  Too few probably even understand my answer.

  
  

  “One’s better than ever,” I reply, “but danged if that other sucker still doesn’t have a ways to go.”

  
  
  Grizzard’s hearts are not the guilty ones of his southern predecessor Poe: rather, they are the tell-tale beatings of the important things in life, and even of life itself.
• 
  Michael Smith

  Lewis was hilarious.
• 
  Laurel

  Solid and decent
  
  This had the feel of a long short story, rather than a book. While it was a good story, it was a bit narcissistic. I don't read auto biographies for that reason. It was humorous enough, and I really enjoyed not having to put up with the raw language or dark attitudes that permeate so many modern books. I can recommend this book as easy entertainment.
• 
  Ben B

  I met Lewis Grizzard at a book signing. He signed my book, "To a great American." I treasure it. He's funny in a way that Jeff Foxworthy, to pick a name at random, can only hope for. His genius is just barely concealed behind his red neck.
• 
  Marty

  Laughter is good for the soul.
• 
  Gail Strickland

  This is the one about his heart surgery.
• 
  Linda

  The late Lewis Grizzard can make having open heart surgery humerous. I miss him and his funny books!
• 
  Amelia

  It's a shame that Lewis Grizzard has fallen out of fashion. He's a delight to read -- not many people can make me laugh and cry within the course of a few sentences.
• 
  Sivasubramanyan M.V.

  truly entertaing book..and its marvellous how Grizzard can manage to be so comical and humorous about his heart surgery!
• 
  Shannon Maddox

  See my review here:
  http://iron-diva.blogspot.com/2015/10...
• 
  Maddy Weist

  This was a fun lil story. I very much enjoyed how the author filled this book with jokes here and there. It has a lot to say about love, life, and death but in a lighthearted way.
• 
  Ronald

  read SOMETIME in 2010